Summary: Information concerning the delivery of Laptops for Teachers to schools and arrangements for warranty based technical support.

I am pleased to inform schools that I am advised by BECTa that deliveries of Acer laptop computers to schools under the ‘Laptops for teachers’ scheme will commence on the 26th September and will be completed by the 29th September. Over 460 laptops will be delivered to Sandwell schools during the coming week.

Upon receipt, schools should ensure that these items are stored securely until they can be distributed to their teachers. Any paperwork accompanying the delivery, and/or any paperwork contained within the packaging should be completed and promptly returned to the addresses indicated; in particular warranty and/or software registration documents. This will help to avoid difficulties should a technical fault occur. Any software license documentation and/or accompanying CDs/Dvds should be kept safely.

Although the laptops and accompanying software are distributed to individual teachers they will be the property of the school and therefore should be recorded on the school’s inventory and insurance schedules.

When teachers receive their laptop they must register it online at http://lft.ngfl.gov.uk. If a teacher with one of these laptops leaves Sandwell LEA, the laptop should be returned their school for re-assignment to another teacher. If a teacher moves to another Sandwell school then the laptop stays with them.

Each laptop is supplied with a 3 year Technical support service. This includes collect and return maintenance and manufacturer’s warranty. The 3 year cover period is effective from the date of delivery to the school.

The supplier is:

XMA Limited

Thomas House

Wilford Industrial Estate

Ruddington Lane

Wilford

Nottingham

NG11 7EP

FAX: 0115 9822200

WWW address www.xmaonline.co.uk

The contact details for technical support are:

Telephone 0845 2344014

E-mail address tech.support@xma.co.uk

Technical support is available from 08:00 hours to 18:00hours Monday to Friday except public and bank holidays.

If a teacher requires technical support then they should call or email the contact address and provide the following information:

  • ·         Make and model of the laptop
  • ·         Serial Number
  • ·         School address or the location of the computer (if different).

The XMA support team will log all telephone calls and provide a unique call reference number which should be noted.

The maximum timescale for response will be:

  • Answering call – 2 minutes
  • Duration of call – 11 minutes (Confirmed)
  • Fault fix – 2 hours

In the case where XMA cannot resolve the fault within the 2 hour window, due to the adverse nature of the fault, the teacher will be kept reliably informed and given an alternative solution/arrangements by the end of the next working day i.e. Collect & return maintenance or manufacturer warranty repair will be arranged, the call then can be considered closed.

The response times for email support calls are as follows-

  • ·         Response to email support call – 2 hours
  • ·         Resolution of email support call – One working day.

Teachers main point of contact for technical support is the XMA technical support team (& not Broadband Sandwell/EMU).

Should the technical problem not be resolved by the telephone/email contact and it proves necessary for the laptop computer to be returned for repair then the following will process will be followed:

  • ·         XMA will log a call for an engineer to make contact with the teacher to arrange collection at their given address within the next working day. Service visits will be carried out between 9:00am and 17:00pm
  • ·         During the 3-year Maintenance period if a fault cannot be resolved via the Technical Support Service the equipment will be collected from site, repaired within the workshop and then returned to the teacher. Title and risk of the equipment is still held by the teacher until the XMA’s courier collects and signs for the equipment.
  • ·         XMA will endeavour to complete the repair within 5 working days from receipt in the workshop, excluding courier time.

The 3 year technical support service provided by XMA is intended to address most faults and general problems. It is not envisaged that it will provide for more specific requirements such as logging on to a school’s network or connecting to a school’s broadband service.

If teachers plan to use the laptop with an interactive whiteboard, they should ensure that they install the latest version of the software.

For users of Smartboards who require some assistance, Broadband Sandwell/EMU will offer workshop training sessions on the installation and use of Smartboard software on the following dates;

  • ·         13th, 14th, 18th & 21st Oct & 9th Nov at 10.00am.
  • ·         13th Oct & 1st Nov at 3:00pm.

Broadband Sandwell/EMU is an accredited Smartboard Training centre.

For assistance with installing and using SIMS software on the laptops, please contact the SMIS team.